BURKE COUNTY, N.C. — Burke County Emergency Services personnel and firefighters from Oak Hill trained for swift-water rescues on the Catawba River near the Lake James dam on Thursday.
Duke Energy released water from the dam to make the training more realistic.
There have been several rescue calls in Burke County during flash flooding this year.
[Local first responders assist in rescuing camper at Linville Gorge]
"There's a lot of times we find people that have been out during the day, playing in the river in the middle of the river, and the water comes up and you get stranded out on a sandbar,” said Capt. Brad Browning, with Burke County Emergency Services. “You get stranded in deeper water than you were before."
Donald Creswell lives along the Catawba River and has seen rescues out his back door, including a teenager swept under his dock.
"Out of the last two months, the rescue squad has probably been here six times,” Creswell said. “Like last Saturday, we had the rescue squad here twice in one day."
No one has been seriously injured during any of the rescues.
Personnel trained younger members of the team on how to operate the boat in conditions similar to a flash flood.
Lt. John Hood has made more than a dozen rescues in Burke County.
"We can use throw ropes to get them out,” Hood said. “If they make it further down river, they can self-rescue and swim to the bank. But up here in this water, it depends what kind of equipment we have access to."
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